


Warning Shot

by LovinJackson



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Friendship, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Poison, Sick Steve, Worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-04-05
Updated: 2011-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-09 21:59:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3265847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovinJackson/pseuds/LovinJackson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after Season 1. Ep 12. When Steve falls sick after their latest case, the team rush to find out what has caused this sudden illness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. So Much For Christmas

Steve McGarrett gasped awake, springing into a sitting position. He could still hear the shots in his head, his father's orders ringing in his ears.

_Whatever these people want, Steve … don't give it to 'em. Don't you give it to 'em!_

Steve blinked, one lone droplet of sweat ran into his eye and he rubbed at it shakily, closing his eyes. He leaned forward and brought up his other hand to his head, allowing his upper body to support itself as he held his head in his hands.

_My brother's dead … isn't he?_

_Victor, Listen..._

_Isn't he?_

The conversation ran through his mind as clear as the day it had been held between himself and Victor Hesse. He could smell the fumes from the exploded vehicles around him, he could smell Anton Hesse's blood on his hands.

_Then so's your father!_

Steve jumped, the sound of the gunshot echoed through his head as if he had actually been on the phone. Steve groaned, running both his hands through his short dark hair. It was sweaty and he felt gritty like he'd gone to bed after being in the field all day without showering. It had been a hot night and the room felt stuffy … of course maybe that was just his head; too much was going on in there.

Steve looked up at the ceiling. It held no answers. He wasn't even really sure what the questions were. Victor Hesse was in jail. His father's murder had been solved, the murderer caught. But Steve didn't feel any better. He didn't feel any better at all.

Tossing aside the sheet covering his lower body, Steve shuffled to the side of the bed and pushed himself to his feet. He walked over to the bedroom window and and opened it. He needed some fresh air, he needed to clear his head.

There was no breeze, no relief outside that window. There was nothing but dead air and black night to accompany him in the wake of his nightmare.

Steve placed his hands on the window sill and dropped his head to his chest, closing his eyes once more. He opened them again almost immediately. The darkness behind his eyelids only made way for the sounds of that day to be loud and clear.

"Jesus..." he muttered to himself as he pushed off against the window sill and turned around, wavering a bit on his feet, his back to the window and the dark night.

He hadn't dreamt about his father's death for a while. Why now? The case was over, Hesse was taken care of. He had done his job. He had saved Chin from Hesse's explosive device and taken down his father's killer. Why was he now plagued with a sleepless night?

Steve padded into the bathroom, flipping on the light as he did so. He squinted at the glare from the light, not expecting for it to hit his eyes so hard.

It felt like he'd been in the dark for days, making his eyes extra sensitive. Only he hadn't. It had only been four hours before that he had been with his team, helping Danny celebrate Christmas with Grace. There had been lights and cheer and smiles and laughter … and love. Danny's love for his daughter was something that warmed his heart. It was something he had wished he'd had with his own father and something he wanted to make sure that Danny could continue giving to Grace.

Heading over to the sink, Steve frowned and pressed a hand to his stomach as a sudden sick feeling washed over him. But that was wrong too. It wasn't sudden. It had been there all night. He'd been ignoring it, enjoying himself in the wake of his small little unit being safe and he'd only felt a little off … nothing that really required any further attention, or so he had thought.

Swallowing thickly, Steve leaned forward, reached out and turned on the faucet. Cold water rushed through the pipes and out of the tap. He cupped his hands under the cool liquid and brought the small pool to his mouth. He drank and then repeated the action once more before the third small pool cupped in his hands splashed over his face.

Droplets of water hung off his eyelashes as he looked into the mirror. Steve frowned again, this time at his appearance. Despite his overly pale skin, his cheeks were tinged pink with fever. He raised his hand and ran the back of it across his forehead. He was hot. Steve blinked at his reflection as it seemed to blur for a moment.

"Great," he muttered to himself. "Just what I need." He didn't have time to get sick. His father's murderer might have been caught and put behind bars but his mother's was still out there.

He was still trying to wrap his head around that. His mother's car accident hadn't been an accident. His father had known, all this time he had  _known_  and he had kept it to himself.

Steve didn't know whether to feel angry at his father for not telling him, or whether he should reserve all that anger for the person that had taken her from them. This confusion was almost worse than anything.

Steve splashed some more water on his face and then reached blindly for the towel he knew was beside the sink. He wiped his face dry and then dropped the towel onto the sink, letting it hang off the side as he turned around and walked slowly out of the bathroom.

Taking one look at his bed, Steve felt the insatiable need to just go lie back down but he couldn't. He knew what he would find if he tried to go back to sleep. He wasn't all that keen to revisit old nightmares.

Instead he veered off in a different direction. He headed out into the hall and looked over the guard rail. Placing his hands on the wooden railing, Steve tried to quell the vertigo that suddenly hit him. He hadn't thought his landing was up so high before.

Steve stayed there for a moment, getting his bearings. He hadn't felt this off in a long time, not without some answer as to why he was feeling so bad. Removing one hand from the railing, Steve pressed it against his stomach. He swallowed thickly once more and tried to will his body to obey him. He waited until he thought nausea had abated and then shook his head, trying to clear his vision.

It was getting cloudier and cloudier. He blinked and then continued on. He made sure to keep one hand on the railing as he made his way down the stairs. It was like they were moving, swaying, one wrong step and he would crash to the bottom.

Stopping half way down, Steve clung to the rail. "Whoa..." he huffed, his breath shaky.

Somehow he made it to the bottom without breaking his neck or loosing his dinner. He was under no illusion that both were a miracle. Bypassing the living room, Steve staggered into the kitchen and almost crashed to the floor as he miscalculated, his hip connecting with the corner of his dining table.

It was getting hotter, like someone had turned up the heat. His head felt so stuffy that he was tempted to stick it in the freezer for some relief. He knew it had been a hot Christmas but had Hawaii had a sudden peak in temperature? This was ridiculous.

Steve grabbed his stomach again as it felt like he was about to lose his dinner once more. A sudden sharp pain making itself known, combating with the nausea for attention. He leaned forward in the middle of his dining room and placed his hands on his knees and tried to breathe through the nasty set of nauseating waves that had taken place in his stomach.

A feeling of unease seeped through him and he almost stumbled again. Steve straightened and attempted to take a large breath. It was like trying to breathe through tar. His hand whipped out and grabbed the back of a chair as the ability to breathe deeply turned into a struggle.

Something was wrong. If he had been thinking straight he would have realised that a long time ago. Something was very wrong … with him. "Shit," Steve gasped.

His eyes widely darted around, looking for something, anything. He needed something … he … he needed help. A phone … his hand automatically went to where his phone always was – in the pocket of his cargo pants. But he wasn't wearing cargo pants. He was wearing boxers, the weather not allowing for any more clothing than that. His iphone was back in his bedroom, on his night stand.

His blurry and distorted gaze sought out the landline. He saw it ... on the bench in the kitchen. He breathed in quick and erratic, his body panicking over the fight for air. He took a step away from the kitchen table and towards the phone. Stumbling, his body was weak and heavy and he crashed into the bench. His ribs cried out as they took a beating against the edge and his hand fumbled for the phone.

With fingers finally tightly wrapped around his object of need, Steve pressed the speed dial he knew to be Danny's number just as he lost his battle to stay upright. He crashed to the floor, the overheated skin of his bare torso rejoiced as it hit the cool floorboards and it was the last thing he thought before his eyes rolled back and he knew no-more.

Xxx

Danny Williams rolled over, growling something unintelligible and then re-situated himself on the fold out bed. He moved carefully, even half concious, remembering that he wasn't sleeping alone. Grace was there, fast asleep on the bed next to him.

His phone stopped ringing and Danny sighed, keeping his eyes closed. He tried to reclaim the dream he'd been having. The dream where he didn't have to hand his daughter back over to her mother and step-father in the morning.

Danny's eyes snapped open. Something was wrong. He didn't know what. He didn't know why the sudden feeling of dread had come over him but now that it was there it was sitting like lead in his stomach. That ring tone …

Danny looked over his shoulder, checking to make sure his daughter hadn't been disturbed. She slept on oblivious and sweet. He needed to get a bigger place, or at least a place that could accommodate both himself and Gracie sleeping in their own beds. He hated to admit when McGarrett was right … but he was.

That sudden feeling that something was wrong hit him hard again and Danny reached over to his phone and looked down at the screen. Blinking his eyes a few times to clear them, Danny read the name on the caller ID. The name and the personalised "Original GI Joe Theme" ringtone all started to sync together to form a picture in Danny's mind.

But what the hell was the ex-SEAL calling him for at - Danny looked down at his watch that was still strapped to his wrist – three thirty in the morning? Three in the damn morning? On Christmas morning? Did the man not stop? Ever? Really?

_Why me?_  Danny asked himself as he tossed the phone back onto the bedside table. He remained leaning on one elbow as he reached up and rubbed at his eyes. Damn if he wasn't tired. But he couldn't complain. The night before had been great. He'd been able to keep his tradition of dressing up as Santa for Gracie and he'd been joined by his new friends, people that he was caring about more and more.

Despite the shaky start he and Commander Steve McGarrett had had, Danny was starting to feel like he had a place, like he belonged. He would never admit it of course - because his partner would never let him hear the end of it - but Hawaii wasn't so bad when he had his daughter and friends to keep him company.

But he could do without friends that called him at three am on Christmas morning.

Danny laid back down, careful not to wake Grace, and closed his eyes. He wanted to just enjoy this time.

Two minutes of staring at the underside of his eyelids, Danny snapped his eyes open, sighing. This wasn't working. Something was niggling at him. He forced himself up onto his elbow again and reached for the phone and pressed call back on the missed call he'd received from Steve.

It was then that he had noticed the call hadn't come from his partner's iphone, but his landline. It wasn't totally strange but it wasn't something he was used to. Danny tried to shove the thought aside.

Danny let the phone ring out, pulling away when he heard the dial tone. No answer there. Danny automatically punched in a call to McGarrett's cell. He always had his iphone on him. He was always reachable. Again he was met with the call ringing out, ending this time with the former SEAL's voice mail asking him to leave a message. Odd.

There was something telling him to try it again. He didn't though. His next course of action had him calling their team member Chin Ho Kelly. It took a few long seconds before Chin answered and Danny felt sorry for obviously pulling him out of sleep.

" _What's wrong?"_

"Have you heard from Steve?"

There was silence for a few seconds before Chin answered. _"Not since we left your place."_

"Huh ..." Danny exhaled.

" _Why?"_

"He called me about five minutes ago but I missed it. Now he's not answering. It's … probably nothing." This was silly. Only it didn't feel silly. After the last case they'd had they were all a little … off.

" _Or it could be something. I've learnt that it never hurts to check. Do you want me to go over there?"_

Chin's offer made him feel grateful and more worried all at once. He shook his head even though he knew the other man couldn't see him. "No, it's okay. I'll try him again."

" _Okay … if you're sure."_

"I'm sure. Sorry I woke you, man."

" _No problem, Brah. Oh and Mele Kalikimaka to you and Gracie."_

"What?" Danny asked, confusion marring his features. It was too early for anything other than English.

" _Merry Christmas."_

"Right."

Danny could almost see Chin's knowing smile through the phone as the other man ended the call. Shaking his head, Danny carefully crawled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. He pressed dial on McGarrett's number once more. To Danny's ever growing sense of unease, there was no answer.

"Damn it."

"Daddy?"

Danny swung around at the sound of his daughter's tired voice behind him. Despite his efforts to be covert and allow her to sleep, he'd managed to wake her up. Great. Had he walked under a ladder? Broken a mirror? Things were just not going his way this morning.

Danny took a couple of steps towards the little girl and knelt down on one knee so he was eye level with her. "What are you doing up, Monkey?"

"Is Uncle Steve okay?"

Danny frowned. He wasn't expecting that question. "Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be?"

Grace shrugged and hugged the new plush dolphin Kono had given her for Christmas. "He wasn't feeling well."

"Did he tell you that?" Danny asked.

He had noticed Steve had been looking more and more tired by the end of the night, he'd looked a little off. But after the last case they'd had Danny hadn't thought much of it. Besides, if Steve was coming down with something he knew damn well he wouldn't admit it even under the threat of death. He was fully planning on calling him on it when they got back to work if their boss didn't look any better.

Grace shook her head. "No, but ... "

The hesitancy in his daughter's voice brought that worrying knot back to Danny's stomach. "But what?"

"He threw up."

"He did?"

"Uh huh … in the bathroom but he said your mystery Christmas cake had made him sick."

How had he missed that? What had he been doing while his partner was off being sick in his small bathroom?

"He said not to tell you because he didn't want to hurt your feelings," Grace supplied like she had read his mind. He thought he probably had those questions written all over his face. Grace was a kid but she wasn't stupid … or blind. "It was pretty bad. Nobody else liked it either," she followed up as if in afterthought.

"Oh really?" Danny raised a challenging eyebrow, earning a familiar smirk from his daughter. It was one he had seen in the mirror. Danny lunged forward and scooped his daughter into his arms, freeing one arm to tickle her. "My cake's not good enough for you now?" he asked over the forced giggling as she squirmed to get away and keep hold of the soft toy all at once.

Danny walked over to the bed and released Grace onto the bed, on top of the covers, laughing a little as she caught her breath. "How about we get back to bed, huh?"

"But what about Uncle Steve?" Grace asked, her tone once again serious.

Danny sighed and climbed onto the bed with her, holding the blankets up so they could both climb in. He wrapped his arm tightly around her as she snuggled into his side. He would never tire of doing this. He was going to miss it when she would be too old to want to snuggle with her poor old father.

"Steve is old enough and ugly enough to deal with a stomach bug."

"Food poisoning," Grace corrected.

"Still sticking with that story, huh?"

"It wasn't good, Danno." That was the last time he was buying cake from the local grocer.

"You wound me, kid. Say, what was I doing while Superman was puking up my cake?"

"You were putting my new bike together with Uncle Chin. Do you think I can ride it in the morning?" Grace asked, snuggling down further.

"Sure, Munchkin. But first we need sleep." He slipped further down the bed and laid his head on the pillow, feeling the comforting light weight of Grace against him.

He reached over and switched off the lamp and closed his eyes. Images of him putting together Gracie's bike hours earlier flew through his mind. Steve calling him lazy as he moaned and complained that now days you had to put everything together yourself. Chin reading the instructions as Kono directed … and laughed. Suddenly he felt the presence of his partner missing from the equation. Why hadn't he noticed that at the time.

Steve McGarrett was smart. He knew how to hide things that he didn't want people to know. But Danny knew that if he had of being paying proper attention he would have seen behind McGarrett's facade.

"You cant sleep, can you?" Grace whispered in the dark.

Danny sighed. "No."

"You're worried."

He was. Steve wouldn't call him in the middle of the night when he was sick if something wasn't up. Danny reached out blindly and switched the light back on. He wasn't going to sleep peacefully until he checked this out. Danny pulled the covers back and got out of the bed again and started looking for his clothes. Grace watched him from the bed. He slipped his trousers on over his shorts and then turned to Grace. "I'm gonna get Mrs Lokelani to sit with you for a bit, okay?" He was lucky to have the old woman living just next door. Danny hadn't long moved in when he had learnt that she had been a cops wife for thirty years before her husband had passed. Grace had taken a liking to her and after a thorough background check, Danny had deemed the old woman safe to be around his daughter. He wasn't paranoid … really. But you had to be extra vigilant now days. She understood the life of a cop and was Danny's only option right now.

"But I want to come with you!" Grace told him, getting out of bed again, this time leaving the dolphin behind.

Danny stooped down again and held her shoulders with both hands. "I wont be long. I promise. I'm just going to check up on Steve and I'll be right back." That was the plan anyway. "He's probably fine. Besides if he is sick he wouldn't want you catching anything off him, now would he? I'd have to kick his sorry butt." He quirked his lips up in a smug smirk for Grace's benefit.

It took a moment before he finally achieved the smile he was aiming for. "Okay," she sighed and then her face lit up. She did an about turn and walked back over to the bed and picked up her dolphin. She handed to soft toy to Danny. "Give him my dolphin."

"No, Honey, that's yours." Danny tried to hand the toy back.

"Just until he feels better. He'd good company," Grace insisted.

Danny looked down at the toy and then at his daughter. He drew her into a hug. "Danno loves you." he whispered into her hair

"I love you too," Grace replied, squeezing him back.

Danny released her and stood. He guided her back to the bed, tucked her back in and then kissed her head. "I'll be back soon."

Danny tucked the dolphin under his arm, collected his wallet, keys, phone, badge and gun and headed for the door, intent on getting the babysitter and then getting to Steve's … kicking his partner's arse was looking like a better idea by the minute.

X0X

As Danny pulled into the long driveway at the McGarrett home it was still dark, in the hours between night and the first rays of sunlight. The trees surrounding the house and property were casting leafy shadows but it didn't stop him realising he wasn't the only person paying an early morning visit to the Lt Commander.

Sitting there between the porch and Steve's Truck was Chin Ho Kelly's motorcycle. Danny slowed to a stop behind Steve's truck and killed the engine, his gaze fixed on the motorcycle and then the house, looking for a sign of it's owner. Seeing movement on the porch, Danny quickly opened the car door and got out, automatically feeling for his gun in the holster connected to his belt. It was there of course and he prayed that he wouldn't need it tonight, that he just had an over-active imagination that decided to steal him away from his daughter on Christmas morning.

"Thought I told you there was nothing to worry about," Danny greeted Chin on the porch.

Chin raised an eyebrow. "Then what are  _you_  doing here?"

Danny made his way past Chin and to the front door. "Oh you know, I just cant get enough of McGarrett's charming scintillating personality. He home?"

"He hasn't answered the door or answered my calls. I checked around the back. Nothing's out of order, but ..."

"But something feels off."

"Got it in one, Brah. We need to get inside."

"That's what this is for." Danny slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his keys, holding up one key in particular.

"You have a key to Steve's house?" A wry smile formed on Chin's face.

"For emergencies," Danny clarified. Of course he rarely waited for an invitation these days … or from the get-go. He let himself in and Steve bitched about courtesy knocks and Danny making himself at home. They had a system. It worked. "I demanded he hand over a key after the General Puck thing. I also demanded that he get a new security system put in. The man seems to think he's a one man army."

"Good thing you did." Chin agreed as he looked out towards the yard and the road behind the line of trees.

Danny slipped the key into the clock and heard the satisfying click as the door unlocked. He pulled the key out and slipped his keys back into his pocket and then unhooked his gun from its holster, noticing that Chin's gun was out also.

Danny nodded, holding the gun at ready, nudged the front door open with his foot, letting Chin move in first. Danny followed in close behind, flipping the light switch on as they moved.

"Steve!" He called, wanting to alert the man that they were there. He was an ex-seal after all and if nothing was wrong then he didn't want to get shot by friendly fire because he didn't announce himself. "McGarrett! You there?"

"Danny," Chin called. "In here."

Danny followed the sound of Chin's voice and found himself in Steve's kitchen just as Chin switched on the light. The house was eerily quiet except for their footsteps. Danny's eyes adjusted to the bright light of the kitchen and finally rested on object of their search. There on the ground, dressed only in a blue pair of boxers was Steve McGarrett. The phone was lying mere inches from his hand like he had been trying to make a phone call and just collapsed.

"Shit," Danny cursed as Chin knelt down beside their leader and automatically checked for a pulse. Danny hovered, wanting to know the man was okay and feeling on edge. His attention kept darting between Steve and the rest of the room, looking for some assailant to show himself, for something to catch his eye to explain what Steve was doing on the floor of his own kitchen.

"He's alive," Chin revealed much to Danny's relief. "Stay with him. I'll call it in." Chin told him as he stood swiftly and pulled out his cell phone and dialled.

Danny stayed kneeling beside Steve. He could hear Chin talking to the dispatcher, telling her they needed an ambulance, a team to come in, but his concentration was now completely on his friend. He holstered his gun and pressed his fingers against Steve;s throat to feel for the pulse himself. It was there but it did nothing to comfort Danny. It was erratic and fast like his heart was working overtime to keep pumping. The former seals skin was sweaty and hot to the touch and his cheeks were bright read with fever. He looked like shit.

Danny lightly gripped his friend's jaw. "Steve?" he called, tapping his cheek gently. "Steve, wake up, buddy." It was said quietly. He heard Chin finish the call and tell him he was going to check the rest of the house and was glad that Chin has decided to come. He nodded at him and then looked back down at Steve.

"Hey! Pain in the ass! Open you eyes! Come on, man!" Danny tried. He leaned over Steve, letting his ear hover over the commander's mouth. His adrenaline shot up a notch. Steve's breathing was almost non-existent. "Steve … come on! You're supposed to be some kind of super ninja seal. I hate to break it to you, pal, but ninjas don't die on their kitchen floors in their underwear." That he knew of anyway. Danny waited, watched Steve's face for any type of acknowledgement. There was nothing, only a growing sense of fear that maybe Steve really was dying. The fact that this had come as a surprise, that they had no idea what was wrong with him made the whole situation that much worse.

"Don't you dare stop breathing," he muttered quietly as Chin came back into the room, holstering his own gun.

"The rest of the house is clear. There's no-one here. It doesn't look like anyone  _was_  here either. How's he doing?"

"His temperature is through the roof, his heart his beating way too fast and erratic and he's barely breathing … but other than that he's just peachy," Danny said, looking up at Chin, apologising with a look for his caustic manner.

This wasn't Chin's fault and the other man was just as worried. He didn't always have control of what came out of his mouth. Sarcasm was his natural defence … who was he kidding? It was his natural manner of speech regardless of the situation. Still Chin didn't deserve it right now.

"Where's that ambulance?" he asked, looking up at Chin while keeping two fingers pressed against Steve's throat.

"They'll be here any minute," Chin replied, just as the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance. "I'll go call Kono and direct them in."

"Good idea." Danny nodded his thanks and watched as Chin walked out of the room. He looked back down at Steve.

What the hell was wrong with him? He had been a little off when he'd left but not bad enough that Danny would have expected this. He knew one thing for sure. This had nothing to do with food poisoning from his Christmas cake … Where the hell was that ambulance?


	2. The Waiting Game

"Oh that's right, that's exactly what this is."

The waiting room was quiet except for the one phone conversation that was being held over by the far wall. Danny could feel eyes on him, some of them curious, some of them belonging to people that just wanted him to shut up. No-one was here because they wanted to be … including Danny.

"Of course, I'm the asshole that ditched his daughter on Christmas morning to go and play hero."

Danny ignored the rest of the waiting room and stared out the massive windows before him, his gaze landing on the parking lot, the morning sun already beating down, creating a humid heat for anyone who was outside. He was standing there watching the outside world but his concentration was in a different place.

"Don't start with me, Rachel, okay. It is not like I wanted to dump her on your doorstep this morning okay. In fact the last thing I wanted to do was hand her over," Danny admitted, punctuating his words with angry hand movements. "But I didn't think you would appreciate her spending a good part of her Christmas Day in the waiting room of an emergency freaking ward. I was thinking of Grace."

Danny opened his mouth to say more but was cut off by the British tones of his ex-wife. His first Christmas on the island was not going to plan. His time with his daughter was cut short and his partner and friend – and when had that happened? - was lying in some emergency room looking like death had used him for football practice and now to top things off Rachel, the mother of his beloved daughter, decided the pain of giving up his daughter wasn't to come without a tongue lashing about what a terrible father he was.

But it wasn't Rachel's angry, tired words that struck a cord with him the most. A frown darkened his features as another voice accompanied hers in the background.

"Rachel, Rachel, sweetheart," Danny interrupted her, using an old term of endearment that was bound to ruffle her feathers. He never said he wasn't an antagonist. "Tell Step-Stan to mind his own damn business. This has nothing to do with him."

Danny ran a hand over his face, letting his hand rest against his chin. He felt like head-butting the glass. "No, it has nothing to do with him and everything to do with that fact that I. Couldn't. Help. This." He spelt it out for her. "I'm sure Steve went and got sick on purpose just to ruin Stan's beauty sleep."

There was a tap on his shoulder, causing Danny to look around. Hope surrounded him and he couldn't help but feel disappointed when Chin came into view. He appreciated his team-mates presence but he was kind of hoping to see the doctor by now. Accepting the styrofoam cup of coffee from his friend, Danny gave him a brief smile of thanks before the phone call dragged his attention back.

"I don't know what's wrong with him and if you had of stopped talking for two minutes, the reason we're having this pleasant conversation is because a good man is lying in the hospital."

The fight had left Rachel. Steve had gotten along well with his ex-wife the night they had needed to camp out in her house on a stake-out. It hadn't come as a surprise. Steve was a charmer. He didn't even have to try. Once upon a time Danny would have imagined spending the night in his ex-wife's house would be hell. But it hadn't been. They'd shared something that night, a common familiar ground, reminded each other what they used to be together. Rachel hadn't changed, she just couldn't handle the stress of being married to a cop. Danny wasn't sure whether that made it better or worse.

Not that any of that mattered now. They were back to normal. Him dropping Grace off early because of his job and Rachel telling him off for it over the phone. Only for the first time Rachel went quiet on the line. Like what he'd said had penetrated that hot headed brain of hers.

"Well if you had of shut up for two seconds you might have heard it the first time I told you what was wrong." Danny sighed. He didn't have the energy to keep the bite up on his end. "The doctors haven't told us anything. For all we know it could be something completely non-job related. Tell Gracie that I'm sorry again."

Danny eyed Chin and saw that the man had sat down in one of the hard plastic chairs and was looking into his coffee. Danny appreciated the attempt Chin was making at giving him privacy but at this point he was pretty sure any privacy he had went right out the window the moment he answered his phone in the middle of the hospital waiting room.

"I'll make it up to her. I promise. I'll let you know when I know more. Merry Christmas."

Danny let out a long drawn out sigh as soon as he ended the call. Somehow verbal battles with that woman just tired him out. It was a toss up between Rachel and working alongside McGarrett on which one gave him more of a headache.

"Never get married, Chin," Danny told the other man as he sat down next to him, wondering where the other member of their team was.

The smell of coffee wafted up from the hot cup in his hands and gained part of his attention. Out of the corner of his eye, though, Danny caught Chin's almost knowing smile. "Wait … you're not ..." he started, turning to the other man.

Chin raised his gaze and and his smile became almost sad. "Not any more."

"The job get in the way?" Danny asked, very aware that Chin's situation didn't come with the normal day to day problems of their chosen profession.

Rachel had left him because she couldn't handle the danger. Chin's friends and family had ditched him because they had all wrongfully believed that he had been a dirty cop. Obviously his wife had felt the same way as everyone else. Danny didn't get it. If they knew Chin, if they loved him. How could they believe that of him? Thinking that the man's wife had left him for the same reason just made it all that much worse.

Chin sighed and sat back a little, slouching in the hard plastic chair. "It was for the best, Brah, with everything that happened back then."

Danny shook his head. "That's Bul..."

"Detective Williams?"

Danny's speech on the rights and wrongs in Chin's personal life was cut short as his name was called out by the approaching doctor. Danny stood quickly. Chin stood beside him. The Doctor looked from Danny, to Chin and then back to Danny who stuck out his hand in greeting. "That's me."

"I'm Doctor Collins. I've been treating Lieutenant Commander McGarrett. I was told by the nurse who admitted him to speak to you directly about the Commander's condition." Doctor Collins explained. She glanced at Chin and then back at Danny. "Could we speak for a moment."

"Whatever you have to say you can say to both of us."

Chin extended his own hand to the doctor. "Chin Ho Kelly, I'm part of the commander's team."

"Doc, how's he doing?" Danny asked, cutting to the point.

"He's hanging in there for the moment, Detective, but …"

"But?" Danny asked, cutting off anything she had been about to say. He felt edgy.

"But … maybe we should continue this in my office. This way." Doctor Collins turned around and started walking off towards the admission desk. Danny looked at Chin. If the doctor wanted to talk to them in the privacy of her office then something was seriously wrong.

Without another word, Danny and Chin started off after the doctor in silence. Doctor Collins pushed the door to her office open and strode around her desk to sit behind it.

"Close the door please, gentleman."

Danny wordlessly closed the wooden door behind him and turned around. Chin sat down slowly on one of the two chairs in front of her desk, but Danny couldn't sit. He rocked on his feet, crossing his arms over his chest.

Doctor Collins waved her hands towards the empty seat. "You can take a seat, Detective."

"I'm good. What are we dealing with here, Doc?" Danny wanted answers. The sooner they knew something, the sooner they could do something about it.

"Okay," The doctor stated, opening the file in front of her on the desk. She glanced down at it before looking back up at the two members of the Five-O Task Force. "Commander McGarrett is a very sick man." Danny was just about to comment on the Doctor's ability for stating the obvious when she continued. "But this is no natural sickness."

"What does that mean?"

"To put it simply ..."

"Please do," Danny replied dryly and then winced at her dark expression. He gave her an apologetic smile. She wasn't his enemy.

"We found a foreign substance in the Commander's blood-work."

A foreign substance. When and where could that have happened? Danny's brain started working in overdrive, trying to pinpoint a time and a place where Steve could have gotten infected.

"What is it?" Chin asked, his face serious and stoic.

"I've sent a sample down to the lab for testing. It isn't anything that I recognise straight off the bat and I want to be sure of what it is before we settle on a concrete treatment."

"So you're not doing anything?" Danny asked, eyes widening. His arms dropped from his chest and he widened his stance.

"Don't get on your high horse, Detective, of course we're not doing  _nothing_. We're treating the symptoms he is showing but until I know what is exactly in his system I don't want to give him any anything in case it reacts badly to the substance. As soon as we know what it is, we can treat it."

"Is this something that he could have ingested accidentally? Food poisoning?" Chin asked, glancing at Danny, throwing him a calming look. "Or maybe an infection?"

Doctor Collins shook her head. "This is a literal substance, a chemical, a drug. Although we cant be sure if it was ingested or injected directly, it is not something that could be found naturally in food that has gone bad or an infection."

"So you're saying ..." Danny began.

"That Commander McGarrett was deliberately poisoned?" The doctor asked, pushing a strand of dark hair back behind her ear. "That's what it looks like at the moment."

"Is he going to be okay?" Danny asked.

"Like I said before, he's hanging in there. He's been in and out of conciousness. He's young and strong and we're doing everything we can to combat his symptoms until we know how to treat him. We'll know more once those tests come back."

"I want to see him." Danny told her. He wouldn't be taking no for an answer.

"I didn't doubt that you would for a second, Detective. Commander McGarrett has been placed in a private room as per Governor Jameson's request. Melissa at the admissions desk can tell you what room he has been settled in."

Doctor Collins stood and extended her hand to Chin who stood and shook it. Danny repeated the action. "I'll let you know what our findings are as soon as I get the results."

"Thanks, Doc."

Stepping out of Doctor Collins' office Danny felt torn in many different directions. He wanted to go and see his partner right away but he also didn't want to waste precious time they had to what did this to him.

He hated this feeling. He hated it more than he had hated Steve when he'd first been made to work with him. It was ironic really. He's started out wanting to throttle this man and now here he was stressed and worried over his well being. If someone had told him back in the beginning that this would be the case he would have had them committed.

This wasn't right. This wasn't supposed to be happening. They had won. They were supposed to be celebrating Christmas. Danny clenched his teeth to stop himself from cursing up a storm in the middle of the hallway.

"What are you thinking?" Chin asked, watching Danny carefully as they began walking down the hall in unison.

Danny turned and looked at Chin. "I'm thinking that we need to get on top of this. We need to get a team, a specialist team, into Steve's house, go over everything. His bedroom, bathroom, kitchen ..." Danny jabbed his hand in the air for every place he listed like he was dot pointing their importance. "Everywhere."

Chin nodded "I've already sent Kono off to organise that. That's where she's been all morning. We should probably check out his office as well. Anywhere he's been the last couple of days."

"Go meet up with Kono at Steve's. I'll meet you there." Danny patted Chin on the shoulder and then started to backtrack.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going up to check on Steve, let him know we're on the case. See if I can get two words out of him that might lead us in the right direction."

xXx

Steve's room was uncomfortable. That was the first thing that came to mind when Danny opened the door and slipped inside. Maybe it was silence from his partner or maybe it was that the silence made the noises from the monitoring equipment seem extra loud. Or maybe it was the simple fact that as much as Danny joked around that Steve thought he was invincible, sometimes he forgot that Steve really wasn't. Steve was a human being and it was made very apparent right in that moment as Danny approached the bed. Steve wasn't a small man, he was tall and built ... right now he looked small. It was more of a shock than Danny had thought it would be.

The nurse fiddling with Steve's IV looked up as Danny approached. "You must be Detective Williams. Doctor Collins told me you would be stopping by."

Danny nodded at her distractedly, placing his hand on the handrails. His partner looked like death warmed over. He was shivering, only enough that Danny could just notice, but his cheeks were flushed with fever. It was quite a contrast to his pale complexion. He looked nothing like the super hero they all knew.

The nurse walked past him and squeezed his arm. "He's hanging in there."

Danny glanced up then, just in time to see the nurse slip out of the door. Did he look that worried? Not that anyone could blame him. It had been a rough few days and as far as he was concerned he couldn't remember a time he had ever visited a hospital for a happy reason - well apart from the time Grace was born but that ... that was something else entirely and didn't really count in this instance. His mind was wandering.

Steve moved, shifted in the bed. His face was scrunched up in pain, misery, discomfort ... or annoyance. It was hard to tell with Steve. Danny remained quiet as Steve rolled his head to the side and shifted again. His eyes were moving under closed lids and Danny wondered what was going on in that hard head of his. It didn't look like anything pleasant but then he doubted Steve dreamed about fluffy white clouds on a good night.

"Steve?" Danny asked, his voice sounding louder than normal after the silence in the room. Danny winced and then leaned closer and whispered loudly "Steve?"

At first he got no reaction. Steve remained shivering and feverish and his eyes remained closed. He was in two minds on whether to wake the former seal, on whether he even could wake the man. The Doctor said he had been in and out of consciousness. He felt a little guilty for even trying but the fact that Steve wasn't just sick, he'd been made sick, pushed Danny on.

"Steve!" he repeated in a harsh whisper. Steve flinched and his frown deepened. "Come on, you stubborn ass," Danny encouraged. "You scared the crap out of us so the least you can do is wake up." He felt a smile tugging at his lips as Steve's eyes fluttered. He was becoming aware, slowly. "Come on, show me those baby blues."

The effort it seemed to take the man to actually open his eyes, made Danny regret waking him again but at the same time it made him want to demand that he keep them open to make sure that Steve didn't get any ideas about closing them permanently. Steve's eyes which were usually clear and alert were murky and clouded with confusion.

"About time," Danny sighed with an exasperated sigh.

"Dan ...nny?" Steve's voice almost sounded like a whine. It was weird. Steve was always strong. This sound coming from his friend was just foreign.

"The one and only, Buddy. How you doin'? Because I gotta say … you look like crap." Danny told him, trying to keep his tone light and ignore just how bad Steve looked.

Steve closed his eyes again and licked his dry lips, pulling a face like he had tasted something foul. Heavy eyelids fluttered open again, sitting at half-mast. "What happened?" Steve asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"You're in the hospital..."

"Kay?"

"You're going to be fine," Danny assured him straight away. None of them would believe anything else.

Steve shook his head, the movement small and regrettable if the pained expression on his face getting deeper was anything to go by. "Not ... me."

"Us?" Danny could have sworn that Steve had just rolled his eyes at him but he would ignore it considering the circumstances. "We're all fine, Superman." He leaned down closer. "Can you tell me the last thing you remember, Steve? After you left my place?"

Steve frowned again, his arm coming to shakily rest across his abdomen. "Noth...ing."

"You don't remember anything?" Danny asked.

"Nothing ... happened," Steve clarified, not being able to suppress a moan. He pressed his arm tighter against his stomach.

"So let me get this straight. You went home and went straight to bed? No pit-stops along the way? No midnight snacks? Nothing."

"Nothing." Steve repeated, sluggishly.

That didn't help. Danny reached over and squeezed Steve's forearm. His skin was hot to the touch. "You're gonna be fine," he told his fearless leader. "Listen, Steve, I have to go for now but i'll be back later, okay?"

"No." Steve reached out, his hot fingers clinging to Danny's wrist.

It would have been easy to break free. Steve had no strength in that grip. He could feel the tremors through Steve's hand. But Danny stopped. He looked back down at his friend, an eyebrow raised. "No? What do you mean no? Who the hell made you boss?" Danny asked in jest. He left Steve hanging onto his wrist. The sick man was fighting against his body to get across what he wanted. Control freak until the end was Steve McGarrett.

"Wha's goin' ...on?" Steve asked, tiredly, not even bothering to attempt their usual banter.

"Nothing you need to worry about, man. Just get some rest," Danny tried. He didn't want to worry the man. He knew Steve well enough now to know that he wouldn't rest if he was worried about them. He would want to be out there with them even if he knew he physically couldn't do that. But one look at the man's expression, Danny knew that it would be worse if he wasn't at least a little honest with him.

"Okay, okay … long story short, we found you unconscious in your kitchen, we brought you to the hospital, doctors found an uncommon substance in your blood and they are running tests. Now if you let me go, I'm going to go an play detective and figure out how you managed to ruin Christmas morning for all of us. Happy?"

Steve slumped back against the mattress, scowling. "No." A shudder ran through his body that Danny could have sworn he'd actually seen. Steve tightened his grip on Danny's hand and almost curled in on himself.

"Steve … you okay? You want me to call the nurse back?" Danny asked, eyes wide with concern. The hand that wasn't caught at the wrist by Steve's weak grip was wrapped around the bed rail once more.

Steve slowly shook his head. "No … No … jus' go. I'm good ..." Steve grunted in pain, his eyes fell closed again for a second before he snapped them open again. Whatever they were pumping into his system was hopefully doing it's job.

"Sure you are," Danny placated. "And you're gonna stay that way. You wanna let go of me so I can do my job?"

Danny wrapped his fingers around Steve's hand and pulled it away from his wrist. He gave it a friendly squeeze before setting the commander's arm back down on the white sheets. "Take it easy and don't give the nurses any trouble, Steven. We'll be in later."

"Later … Danno."

Steve's response was barely audible but Danny heard it. He smiled, patted Steve's arm again and then backed away from the bed. He turned and headed for the door with the full intent of getting the nurse to double check on his friend. If Steve McGarrett told him that he was good then it was nowhere near close to that.

Xxx

"Have you heard anything?"

Danny looked up from the computer table in the middle of Five-O Headquarters to see Kono walking up to him. He stood straight and ran a hand down his face. It was tiring searching for something when you weren't even sure what to look for. "Not yet. I called the hospital to check up on him and he's holding his own. They should get the results any moment now."

"And I suppose you made it clear to call you as soon as they came in?" Kono asked with a knowing smile.

"In no uncertain terms."Danny had made it very clear to all involved that he was to be the first to know after Doctor Collins when the results came in on Steve's blood work. He wasn't afraid to use Steve's Governor Jameson leverage when it called for it. And this definitely called for it.

"Good … good," Kono nodded, biting her bottom lip as she looked down. Her shoulders looked weighted.

"You okay?" Danny asked her, although he had a feeling he already knew what was going on with his young team member. They were all feeling the same thing.

Kono looked up in surprise as if he were mad to ask about her. "Of course, it's just ..."

"It's not your fault, Kono." Danny cut her off.

"But I should have noticed  _something_ last night. He was already starting to show the signs..."

"None of us noticed. If you're to blame then so am I."

"And so am I." Chin Ho Kelly announced as he walked down the hall and up to the table to stand in between Danny and Kono.

"Besides Steve was the one that was sick and he neglected to say anything. He is just as much to blame here." Danny was going to be having a serious talk with their boss when he was well enough. This hero bullshit didn't help anyone.

"He wouldn't want any of us blaming ourselves. The only thing we can do right now is find out who did this and bring them down. You ready to do some butt kicking, Cuz?" Chin nudged his shoulder against hers. It took a moment but the young woman broke into a small grin.

"Always," she replied. She looked up at Danny. She still looked like she had the world on her shoulders but Danny was pretty sure that only Steve would be the one to make her believe that it wasn't her fault. Their youngest team member took her perceived mistakes personally.

"Good," Chin answered.

"That's what we want to hear," Danny agreed. Team work … it was fantastic when you had a fantastic team.

"So Rookie, what should be our next move?" Chin asked his cousin.

Kono was keen and a fast learner. Danny had no problem letting Chin turn this into another on the job lesson, especially since he knew it would help to keep her focused. It wouldn't allow her the time to wallow in their failures. Danny could do that enough for all of them.

"Okay," Kono started slowly, looking at what Danny had up on their flat screen, which wasn't a lot. "We need to start backtracking, looking into what Steve's been doing the last couple of days, where he went, who he saw."

"Question is, how far back to we go?" Danny asked.

"Well ..."Chin crossed his arms over his chest, raising one hand to cup his jaw as he thought. He glanced at Danny, pointing his finger at him. "When did he start showing any signs that something was wrong? The Christmas party?"

"I didn't notice anything before then. He was stressed but he wasn't sick." As far as he knew Steve wasn't sick before then but he hadn't really noticed at the party either. Steve had kept that important piece of information all to his damn self. He was _definitely_  having serious words with his partner when all of this was over. "Gracie said he threw up in the bathroom at my place."

"And it was that very next morning that you guys found him in his house. That's at least three to four hours from the time he first showed overt signs of sickness until he succumbed to it," Kono explained, walking around the table, her fingers tented against each other as she thought out loud.

"So it's not a slow poison."

"Meaning he was probably infected no more than twenty-four hours before you found him this morning, maybe less," Kono supplied. "Of course that's just a guess until the blood results come back."

"So we focus on the last twenty-four hours." Chin looked from Kono to Danny just as Danny's phone rang.

Danny pulled the ringing device out of his pocket and looked at his friends before sighing and pressing the call button and bringing the cell phone to his ear. "Detective Williams, this better be good."

" _Detective, this is Doctor Collins."_

"Doc," Danny greeted, alerting his friends to who was on the other side of the phone. "I'm putting you on speaker with the rest of my team. You got some news for us?"

" _I do. I have the Commander's blood test results back ..."_

"And?"

" _I couldn't identify it before because it had been mixed with another toxin that had suppressed it's progress. There was a small amount of a toxin called Palytoxin in the Commanders blood."_

"Palywhat?"

"It's a very dangerous toxin, it's produced naturally by several marine species," Kono explained and then shrugged when Danny and Chin looked at her. "I took a chemistry class in High School … it's naturally found in Hawaii."

"  _You're friend is correct. Very toxic and deadly to humans. This involves skeletal muscle breakdown and the leakage of intracellular contents into the blood plasma."_

"Speak English, Doc."

" _Other symptoms associated with palytoxin poisoning in humans are characterized by a bitter or metallic taste, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, mild to acute lethargy, paresthesia, bradycardia, renal failure, impairment of sensation, muscle spasms, tremor myalgia, cyanosis, and respiratory distress ..."_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Danny interrupted, waving his hand in the air despite the fact the doctor couldn't see him. "… what exactly are you telling me here? Is he going to be okay? Is there a cure?" he asked.

Danny avoided the looks he was receiving from his team-mates. His head was spinning enough. Chin had his arm around Kono's shoulder as they listened to what the doctor had to say.

" _There is ..."_

"Why do I feel like you're about to give me a big BUT here?"

Danny could hear the doctor sigh through the line. _"There is a cure but there is a very big chance that if the cure is administered it could react badly with the other chemical mixed with the Palytoxin."_

"So what do we do?" Chin asked, looking as nervous as Danny felt.

" _We wait."_

"Wait, what?" Danny sputtered. "What the hell do you mean we wait? The Palywhateveritscalled will kill him, right? I'm not liking your ideas of options, Doc."

" _Hold your horses, Detective and let me finish. I said that we wait because this other toxin is dissipating slowly. If administrated on its own it would have made him sick at a non-lethal dose and eventually left the body. It's leaving his system as we speak. Once his system is clear of it we can administer the cure for the Palytoxin and he should be fine."_

"Should?" Kono asked, her voice small and child-like.

" _There is the chance that the Palytoxin will cause irreparable damage before we have a chance to administer the cure."_

"Fabulous!" Danny snapped. He knew it was no use to get angry at the people they needed. This wasn't the doctors fault. But he hated feeling helpless.

" _We're doing the best we can to help the other toxin to flush from his system faster and we're trying to minimise his pain and discomfort in the meantime. He has a good chance, Detective."_

Danny huffed. He had a good chance. Danny didn't want to hear that Steve had a good chance. He wanted to hear that he was going to be fine. That the doctors could do their damn jobs and fix their friend.

" _There's something else."_

Danny rubbed his eyes with one hand. He was so freaking tired. "What is it?"

" _We found a small puncture wound on the side of his upper left leg. We've done tests and found that it was definitely site of administration."_

"Thank you, Doctor Collins," Kono chimed in, catching the frowns Danny and Chin were giving each other. "Take care of him for us. Let him know we'll see him soon."

"I will. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with. Talk to you soon, Detective." Doctor Collins ended the call. The room was silent.


	3. The Pin Drops

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

The Lieutenant Commander's breathing pattern was quite visible from where Danny sat. Every time his friend released a breath the oxygen mask fogged up. Then he would breathe in again, taking some of the mist with the inhalation. It should have been reassuring, watching his friend breathe. But it wasn't. It was irregular. It sounded harsh and hard fought for. It sounded unnatural.

Danny supposed that he should be happy that he was breathing at all. After hearing Doctor Collins' prognosis and what he'd learnt about the toxin since the Doctor's phone call, Danny was going to count them all lucky. They were lucky that Steve was still around to fog up an oxygen mask at all. Not everyone subjected to this toxin survived this long.

But then luck was in the eye of the beholder. Danny was sure if they were as lucky as he would like them to be, a cure would have already been administered and Steve would have been well on his way to being able to drive him crazy again. But then he had also been taught to deal with the cards you'd been dealt. Maybe he was being greedy for wanting more than what they had but Danny didn't exactly care.

Danny looked towards the door, to where Mary – Steve's sister – had left the room moments before to get herself a coffee. He'd hated having to make that call. He was sure that Steve would have preferred that Mary stay oblivious to her big brother's latest adventure with death.

Calling Mary hadn't been Danny's first thought, or thought at all. All Danny had cared about was getting whoever did this and making sure McGarrett survived. Kono had been the one to bring up Steve's only living relative currently on the island. Danny had opted to make the call. He was Steve's partner after all. It was his duty. And he was glad that there was someone to watch over his partner while they investigated his situation.

With the comfort of knowing someone was at the hospital, keeping watch over Steve, Danny wasn't entirely sure why he was sitting there beside his friend's bed right in that moment. There was a lot to do. There was an investigation to be had. They needed to find out when and where Steve had been injected with the toxin and they needed to find out by who. They have a good team. The Five-O Team was a force to be reckoned with.

Chin and Kono were on the job as he sat there and stared at their fallen leader, but Danny needed to be there, even for five minutes. Grace had called him, asking him if everything was alright, if Steve was alright. He had promised her that he would tell Steve to get well soon. He never broke a promise to his daughter. He had nothing to do with allaying his own fears at all … not at all.

Movement from the bed shocked Danny out of his thoughts. He sat up straighter, watching his partner with anticipation. His gaze darted to the heart monitor when it's rhythm changed. Danny stood up. "Steve?" he asked looking down at the sick man before him.

Steve shifted again, a pitiful moan escaped him. Danny knew that under normal circumstances Steve would have never allowed himself to sound like that. Until this moment he was sure that Steve was some super human entity that didn't feel pain, or maybe had some super human ability to block it all out. If Steve were in his right mind he would have never allowed himself to show any sign of weakness. It was something that infuriated Danny to no end, along with Steve's rambo like ways of handling a case, or a suspect … or Danny's car.

"How you doin', Sleeping Ugly?" Danny asked when Steve's eye's finally opened. The Ex-Seal's gaze darted around the room in confusion before landing on Danny.

"God ..." Steve's voice was gravelly and barely audible under the mask.

"Nope, but I can understand your mistake," Danny quipped. "It's about time you woke up. Not all of us can afford to lay around on the job."

"Danny ..." Steve breathed, his chest working double time to accommodate his need for air. "What … are y'doin … h-here?"

Danny threw his hands up in the air. "Nice. Here I am, showing my support to my pain in the ass partner and you ..."

"Danny ..." Steve interrupted.

"Steve, I need you to think for me. I know it's hard for you on a good day but just work with me here." Danny thought he almost caught an eye-roll from his partner. "Whoever infected you with this toxin … administered it by needle. The doctors found … hey, you with me, buddy?" Danny asked mid explanation when Steve's eyes slid closed slightly.

"Needle?" Steve asked, his eyes widening in an attempt to concentrate.

"You remember anything? Was there any time in the last twenty four hours that someone would have gotten close enough to jab you in the leg?" Danny asked, he reached up and cupped Steve's chin to try and keep the Lt Commander's attention on what he was saying. "Steve?"

Steve lifted his arm sluggishly to bat Danny's hand away. "No …." His confused and pained frown deepened. "Wait ..."

The words were soft and ragged beneath the mask. "Wait? What? Don't get shy on me now, GI Jane."

"Fight ..."

"Fight? Steve, what fight?" Danny asked. He placed a hand on Steve's shoulder. He was starting to rethink drilling Steve for answers. "Hey, take it easy."

"Hot ..." Steve mumbled. The confused frown had not left his partner's face. He shifted in the bed again, bringing his hand up to feel his face. "What..."

Danny reached and caught Steve's wrist before he could move the oxygen mask. "Stay still. That's there for a reason, Einstein. It's to help you breathe, now I know you needing assistance must be a foreign concept to you but just go with it." Danny pulled Steve's wrist back down to the sheets.

Steve breathed heavily into the mask and brought his other hand up. "Not … helping."

"Steve." Danny complained as he caught Steve's other attempt to remove the mask. "Stop it."

This visit was not turning out like it did in the movies. There was no silent vigil, there was no meaningful conversation … there was just Steve being a stubborn ass. "You need to leave it on, Steven." Danny reiterated slowly, now holding both arms to the mattress. He leaned over to try and get directly in Steve's line of sight. "Are you listening to me?"

Steve shook his head, his eyes open much wider than before. "Danny … c-cant ... Breathe."

"Yes you can." Danny refuted. "Yes you can." He repeated, his own heart skipping a beat as Steve's heart monitor started showing stress. He let go of one of Steve's hands and pressed the call button for the nurse. He pressed it more than once in quick succession and then dropped the device.

Steve was gasping, his chest heaving. Steve's fingers were wrapped around the oxygen masked, pulling it away from his face. His lips were blue. Danny used both his hands to disentangle Steve's fingers from the mask and then quickly held it back over the panicking man's nose and mouth.

"You listen to me, you stubborn jerk. Calm the hell down and just breathe." Danny demanded, holding Steve's arms at bay with his left arm across his body and holding the mask to his face.

The doors to Steve's room finally opened and a nurse rushed in. Danny glanced over his shoulder and then looked down at the man struggling for breath. "What the hell took you so long?" Danny snapped as the woman rushed over.

The nurse ignored him, took one look at the patient and called for assistance. "What the hell is wrong with him? I thought you were handling his symptoms. This? Is not handling anything. This is the exact opposite of handling!" Danny stopped his ranting when he felt someone grab at his wrist. His grip on the oxygen mask nearly slipped. He looked down to see Steve's hand hanging on to him.

"You done?" The nurse asked.

"If it will help you fix him? Then yes!"

"Just keep him calm. Talk to him." The Nurse told him. He watched her face as she read the monitors. She was harder to read than the equipment. She gave nothing away. "Detective!"

"Okay, okay." Danny once again looked down at Steve. "Listen to me, man. Breathe. That's not asking a lot, right? You keep breathing. Just look at me and keep breathing."

Danny couldn't actually say he had ever seen Steve McGarrett really scared. Not for himself anyway. He'd seen him worried for his teams welfare, about his sister. He'd seen him scared just recently for Chin when Hesse had strapped an explosive device around his neck. But scared for himself? Danny couldn't really say he'd seen the same measure of worry, concern or fear for himself … that was until now. Danny knew what it felt like to not be able to draw breath and he couldn't blame the man.

The doors to Steve's room opened again and a team of medical staff piled in. Doctor Collins lead the team to the Commander's bed. "Detective, you need to leave the room."

Steve's grip on his wrist suddenly got tighter and Danny wasn't sure whether Steve had heard the doctor's words and wanted him to stay or if it was just a reflex. Regardless. If Steve wanted him to stay. He was staying.

Danny ignored the Doctor's order, instead continuing to fix his gaze on his friend's panicked eyes. "Besides, I told Grace you were okay. I wont let you make me out a liar to my daughter. You're going to be okay, because I say you're going to be okay. Nod if you can hear me through that thick skull of yours."

Steve nodded. No-one else probably would have called it a nod, no-one else probably would have even noticed it. But Danny did. Steve was hearing everything and just in typical Steve McGarrett fashion he did the exact opposite of what Danny wanted. He gasped, his chest stopped, started and then stopped as his eyes rolled back in his head and his grip on Danny's arm went limp.

"Steve!"

"Detective, leave now and let us do our job!" Doctor Collins, yelled over the whining heart monitor.

Danny felt himself shoved aside by the small female, shortly before he felt arms wrap around his and pull him back. He was too shocked by the sudden turn of events to register that he'd been moved away from his partner until it was too late.

"Come on. Come outside..." One of the orderlies suggested and attempted to follow up by physically leading Danny out of the room.

Danny shrugged out of their grip. He might not have been tall as McGarrett but he wasn't lacking in the strength department. "Get your hands off me." He glared at them for a second before taking a few steps back towards the bed.

"Detective Williams ..."

"Back off!" Danny shouted back without actually looking at them. "That's my partner, now back the hell off." And they did. Whether it was his tone, the look in his eyes or the fact that the orderlies understood his need, Danny didn't care.

The flurry of activity around Steve's bed was making him dizzy. Or maybe it was the sick feeling in his stomach that was afraid that maybe they were going to lose the man. Steve drove him crazy on a day to day basis but he had also given him purpose, friends that he would die for and one more reason outside of Grace to not hate living in Hawaii. Steve was a damn good friend. Of course he would never admit that to the man himself. But the truth was the truth.

Danny watched on, one hand covering his mouth, his feet rooted to the spot as electricity jolted Steve's body in an attempt to get his heart started again. Once, twice … three times and that amazing sound of Steve's heart beating filtered through the room again. Danny let out the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding.

Everything seemed to happen too fast. One minute they were applying paddles to his friend's chest and the next they were inserting a tube down his throat and administering drugs into his IV. They worked without hesitation and quickly. Danny watched them as if watching a silent movie. Medical jargon he didn't understand flowed but the beeping monitor besides Steve's bed? That told him everything he needed to know in that instance.

"Detective?"

Danny blinked at the sound of someone addressing him, at the feel of a hand on his upper arm. He refocused his eyes and found that Doctor Collins was standing in front of him.

"Detective, are you okay?"

Danny raised his eyebrows and laughed. "Am I okay?" he asked incredulously. "Am I … Doc, I'm not the guy that just decided to go on a permanent vacation. What happened?"

The Doctor sighed and looked almost regretful. "The palytoxin, it attacks certain functions. One of them is the respiratory function. The tube will take pressure off his lungs. His heart though, I wont lie to you. It's under a lot of pressure. His whole body is breaking down."

Danny ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "And when exactly will you be able to give him this cure?"

"At Least another hour. We're closely monitoring his blood work and his symptoms. Until it's gone. It's the best we can do." Doctor Collins told him. "We're almost there, Detective."

Danny smiled grimly and nodded. "I have to get back out there. Call me if anything changes … anything, alright?"

"You have my word." Doctor Collins reached across and squeezed his arm, stood back and then walked around him and headed for the door.

Now alone with his friend once more, Danny walked up to his partner's bed. Steve now had a ventilator doing his breathing for him and his eyes were closed. Danny frowned down at the sight before him. And just when he thought Steve couldn't look any more vulnerable. It was just like the man to prove him wrong.

The door to the room opened once more, followed by a small gasp. Mary McGarrett walked quickly to her brother's bedside. "What happened?"

XxX

"I don't know," Danny said as he walked to his car. The Camero's silver body glinted in the sunlight. "He's alive but I wouldn't exactly call his condition okay."

" _What did the doctor say?"_ Chin asked, concern tainting his normally calm tone.

Danny leaned forward and wrenched open his car door but then turned around, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "Nothing that helps. He's still an hour or so off them being able to do anything for him. It amazes me that he's lying in a hospital, a place that is meant to save lives and their just watching him die. Nice."

" _They're doing all they can, Brah."_ Chin reminded him.

"That would be easier to accept if I hadn't just watched the man's heart stop beating," Danny argued, punctuating his point with an aggravated hand gesture. "Maybe all they can is not good enough."

Only silence followed his angry words and Danny sighed, dragging his hand over his face, stubble prickling his skin. Chin was letting him rant and would probably give him a small opportunity to rave as well. His team-mate didn't deserve it, though, so Danny tried to rein himself in.

"Find anything new that will tell us anything at all?" Danny asked in lieu of apologising. Chin's silence was enough of an understanding.

" _Steve's apartment turned up clean,"_ Kono's voice came as a surprise through the phone and Danny wasn't sure whether she'd been there the whole time or whether she'd just joined the party.

"HQ?" Danny asked, turning back towards his car. He leant against her side, one hand resting on his hip as his other hand held the cell phone to his ear.

" _Clean. Just like the boss' house. No prints that shouldn't be there, no evidence of tampering, nothing,"_  Kono was annoyed and sounded about as frustrated as he was. Danny was glad that their youngest team-member hadn't been with him when Steve had taken his turn for the worse.

" _Did you manage to get anything out of McGarrett?"_  Chin asked.

"You mean before the man decided flat-lining was another fun way to give me a heart attack? No ..." Danny began and then stopped. He stood up straighter. "Wait, he said something about a fight."

" _What do you mean?_ " Chin asked and Danny could almost see the cousins sharing a look between them.

"I was trying to get him to remember if anyone had gotten close enough to him to jab a needle into his leg. He said 'fight'. It was hard to tell if he understood anything I was saying, but ..."

" _Oh my God, I don't know why I didn't think of it before,"_  Kono gasped.

"What?"

" _Victor Hesse."_

"Hesse? You guys took him out." Danny stood up straight again at the criminal's name.

" _But not before Steve traded blows with him,"_  Kono reminded them.

"You think Hesse got close enough to administer the toxin without Super SEAL knowing?"

" _They were rolling around in the dirt, throwing each other around as much as they had been throwing fists. It's possible."_

"Alright, alright, Chin call Hesse's new care-takers, tell them we want a little chat with him and then meet me at the prison."

" _Sure thing,"_ Chin assured him.  _"We're on our way."_

Danny ended the call, squeezed the phone in frustration and then put it back in his pocket to avoid throwing the damn thing. Danny hadn't been at the showdown between Steve and Hesse but how had he not remembered the fist fight? Steve hadn't said anything. Surely the man would have known if he'd been stung.

Slipping into the driver's seat of the camero, Danny felt out of place. How was it that he felt wrong driving his own freaking car? It was stupid but right then? It felt wrong without his partner at the wheel, driving Danny's car the way he saw fit, playing awful songs on the radio despite Danny's protest and just simply annoying the hell out of him. How did they get to this place? And when? Right now Danny didn't care. He missed his partner.

XxX

"We should have worked this out sooner," Danny hissed under his breath, loud enough for his team members to hear.

The frustration and guilt was festering and Danny knew that he wasn't the only one feeling it. Kono bowed her head, worrying her bottom lip and Danny felt like a jerk. He wasn't trying to make his friends feel worse about the situation. He was kicking himself more than anyone. They were a team but Steve was his partner. He should have worked this out sooner.

"We couldn't have known, Brah," Chin replied, looking up from where he was sitting on the edge of a hard plastic chair. His shoulders were hunched, his elbows resting on his knees.

"We couldn't have known he was sick or we couldn't have known who made him sick?" Kono asked her cousin, looking up. That question had been on Danny's lips but Kono had beat him to the punch.

"Both," Chin tried to reason. "Steve's stubborn, he wouldn't and didn't let us know he was feeling off, he never mentioned anything out of the ordinary about his tangle with Hesse and when we we did find out what was wrong with him, the diagnosis didn't give us reason to automatically consider Hesse."

"Does that make you feel any better?" Danny challenged.

Chin sighed. "Not exactly."

It was the truth and that made Danny feel even more like a complete ass. Even if they had of known from the start that it was Hesse that had poisoned Steve it wouldn't changed the outcome. They still needed to wait for his system to be flushed before an antidote could be administered. It didn't change anything. Before he could say anything more, movement attracted his attention from the other side of the glass.

"Show time," Danny commented to his friends as he stepped over to the glass. He took a seat opposite the injured felon. Steve had done a number on the man. It only made Danny feel slightly better.

"You look a wee bit stressed, Detective," Hesse spoke, holding the phone handle with his good arm, the other was sitting in a sling courtesy of his fight with McGarrett. "Had yer blood pressure checked recently? Shouldn't mess about with things like that, y'know."

Danny took a calming breath, his gaze fixed on the man on the other side of the glass. "I'm not here for a chat. Done all the catching up with you we'll need for the next lifetime. We have some questions and you're gonna be a good little prison bitch and answer them for us."

"Or what? Do you think things could honestly get worse for me, right now?" Hesse asked, his voice tilted in humour. "I mean McGarret got my brother killed and is the reason I'm sittin' in here. Speaking of McGarrett … where is he?"

"You know where he is you son of a bitch!" Kono growled from behind Danny. He didn't flinch at the heat in her words and he didn't take his eyes of Hesse. The smirk on the man's face told him all he needed to know in their suspicions.

"What was that, love?" Hesse asked, and then pointed to the phone handle. "Cant hear you."

"Cut the bullshit, Hesse."

"Or what?" Hesse replied with a snarl. "You gonna lock me up? Beat the living shit out of me? Sorry but your beloved Commander has already seen to both."

Danny reached into the pocket of his suit pants and pulled out his cell phone, flipped through his contacts before he found the desired name. He held the screen of his phone against the glass. "All I have to do is make one call and your life gets a lot more complicated than it already is."

"You think your direct line to the Governor scares me?" Hesse asked, leaning forward. "You have no idea what you're dealing with. None of you do." Hesse briefly glanced up at the others before looking back at Danny. There was something different in his eyes, something he wasn't telling them.

"Why the poison?" Danny asked, pulling his phone away from the glass.

"Why not?" Hesse countered.

"Poison isn't exactly your M.O, Hesse. Maybe someone else is pulling your strings. Do you answer to someone else, Hesse?."

"You think I don't want him dead enough to pull something like that? McGarrett killed my brother. It was a back-up plan."

"A back-up plan? If you wanted him dead there are a lot of more definite ways to accomplish that. This was … vindictive. This was more like a warning."

"Believe what you want, Detective. But I have nothing more to say to you." Hesse made to stand up. He indicated to the guard that he was ready to leave.

Danny slammed his fist against the clear screen between him and Victor Hesse. "Where do you think you're going? I'm not finished with this conversation!"

Hesse turned around quickly, and faced Danny, clenching his jaw, his eyes meeting Danny's in a look that Danny couldn't quite decipher. "I am. You can shout, point, gesture wildly and threaten as much as you want, Williams. Fact is, I want to be around long enough to see McGarrett get what he deserves. It's out of my hands." Hesse lifted his hands in front of him, before shrugging. "I have nothing more to say to you."

Hesse turned back to the guard. "We're finished here." Without looking back at the Five-O team, Hesse exited through the door, re-entering his new world of confinement.

Danny stood, staring at the now closed door, the receiver still clenched in his hand.

"He's no telling us everything." Chin stated the obvious.

"He told us something," Danny said, putting the phone back on the hook.

"He's not working entirely on his own. He answers to someone else." Kono supplied what both men were already thinking.

"The question is who? What does this person have against Steve?" Chin wondered out loud.

"Hesse is not going to say a damn word." Especially while there was a wall between them and guards to pull Danny off if the interrogation turned south. Especially when he had no protection from anybody that might see him as a threat to their identity. Whoever was pulling the strings, Hesse was scared. The amount of control Danny  _didn't_  feel was overwhelming.

"Then we need pull some of our own strings, get Hesse released into our custody, question him on our own turf," Kono told them. Her eyes were wide with need as she continued to look between Chin and Danny.

Danny understood what she was feeling. It was a need to do something, anything because not continuing to seek answers - even if you knew you weren't likely to get any – felt like they were letting Steve down. Giving up wasn't something that Danny was accustomed to.

"It might be for the best anyway because if someone else is pulling the strings that makes Hesse a liability and I am not having that smug son of a bitch getting himself knocked off before we know everything he knows."

"I hate to burst your bubble, guys but I don't think we'll be getting much out of him. Hesse isnt the type of guy to stick out his neck for just anyone. He's going to keep his mouth tightly shut. You said it before Danny. He's a liability. Talking to us could sign his death warrant if he's working for a powerful enough person." Chin reminded them.

It was true. Hesse had played it cool but Danny hadn't missed the signs of fear. Hesse was much more concerned about the person behind the curtains than he was about them. But Danny didn't care. They needed to work on something and he wouldn't be satisfied until he'd gotten his hands on Hesse without the watchful eyes of the prison guards … even if it was just to make use of their immunity and means that the Governor had nicely given them.

"That doesn't mean that we don't try, Chin. He's our best lead at the moment." Danny pulled out his phone to make the call that would get him what he wanted … a private chat with the man that had ruined his Christmas with his daughter.

"What do ..." Kono started to ask. She stopped mid-sentence when Danny's phone started ringing.

"It's the hospital." Danny felt apprehension fill him down the to bones.

The doctors hadn't had anything good to tell him since Steve had been admitted and the last time that he'd been in there he'd witnessed his friend's heart stop beating. Danny brought the phone to his ear. "Williams," he answered, keeping eye contact with his team-mates as he waited to hear whether the news was good or bad.


	4. Family

Pushing open the door to his partner's hospital room, Danny walked in leaving Chin to park the car and Kono talking to Steve's sister.

On first inspection of his friend he realised he was once more off the ventilator and in its place was the oxygen mask that Steve loved so much. He was fairly certain that was much better than having a tube shoved down your throat but then Steve didn't always think like a normal human being.

Upon arriving at the hospital the Doctor had assured them all that Steve was going to be okay, that the chemical hindering his recovery was finally out of his system and the antidote had been given.

They had waited a while before calling, apparently waiting to make sure that the drug was doing its job before telling his team of his condition. Danny would have promptly told them that he would have appreciated being told immediately but he was just too relieved to hear that Steve appeared to be getting better. He was going to recover. But it was one thing to be told it but Danny wanted to see it for himself. He needed to see it for himself.

Danny stepped up to the bed and his eyes automatically looked up to the screen beside the bed to check Steve's vitals. Last time he had been in here he had seen Steve's heart flat-line. It was something that you didn't forget very quickly. Now, it seemed to be beating. That was a good sign.

Looking down at his partner, Danny noted that his eyes were closed. He still looked a little flushed and sickly. But there was no longer an air of panic surrounding the room. Doctor Collins had warned him upon his arrival that there could still be complications, that there could still be problems if the damage done was too great. The good news was that he was already responding. Doctor Collins was confident.

He placed his hands on the rails of Steve's bed and took a deep breath. He was tired himself. Aside from the small respite at Christmas Eve with his friends and daughter, Danny had felt on edge for way too long. He was sick of worrying about his friends. He was sick at the prospect of losing them being all too real. He realised that danger came with the job description but it seemed like it was one thing after the other lately.

"You really know how to stress a guy out, you know that?" Danny spoke to the unconscious commander. "If it's not hanging people off buildings or driving like a maniac – in  _my_ car – it's you trying to check out early." He'd already lost a partner – an ex partner - and wasn't prepared to lose another one so soon.

Danny kept his voice down as he spoke, not wanting to disturb his friend's rest. "Well let me tell you something. No-one on this team gets an out. If I have to stay on this god forsaken island then so do you. Besides, Grace would never forgive me. She seems to like you. Why? Is a mystery." He rambled.

Danny lifted his hand and ran his fingers through his hair and glanced at the door. It wouldn't be long before his team followed him in.

Looking down again, Danny saw that Steve's eyes were open, looking at him. When had that happened?. He looked beyond tired, like his eyes would slip shut again at any moment. But Steve was a stubborn son of a bitch. His eyes would close when he allowed them to close and not any sooner, Danny was sure of it.

"Well hello there, Partner." Danny smiled down at his friend. "I hear we have some good news."

Steve raised his eyebrows but remained silent.

"Well," Danny shrugged. "Maybe not good news for my sanity," he continued, leaning in closer when Steve mumbled something underneath the mask. He wrapped his fingers around Steve's wrist when the former SEAL reached up clumsily for it. "No. Leave it. And no getting excited."

He wasn't having a repeat of what had happened last time they'd had a discussion in this room. He had gotten excited and had almost ended with the worst case scenario … Steve dead. That memory was fast and clear in his head and he was not having a repeat performance.

"There is no need for you to know anything, say anything or do anything," Danny scolded. Right now Steve wasn't in any condition to do anything crazy. Give him some time and Danny knew he'd be trying to get up and sign himself out. The man was his own worse enemy. But not right now. Not even Super Steve was getting out of bed. And Danny sure as hell was not going to allow him to get himself all worked up. "All you need to do, my friend, is lay there and recover. And then you can be a pain in my ass once more."

"What.."

"Happened?" Danny finished asking the question for him. Steve's voice was barely audible, slurred and looked like it took all too much effort right at that moment which went against Danny's order of relax and recover.

"Looks like Victor Hesse got the last word in your little altercation after all. But," Danny took a seat beside Steve's bed. Steve tracked him with a bleary gaze, his eyes slipping closed as Danny lowered himself into the chair but as predicted they flickered open again. The man was fighting to stay awake. Always fighting. "But it's all okay now. Everything is going to be okay."

That wasn't the entire truth. They knew what happened, they knew how it happened but they were still in the dark about so many things. Victor Hesse may have been the one to put explosives around Chin's neck and he may have been the one that had brought Steve McGarrett down to deaths door and he might have had motive but he wasn't the one in charge. That much was certain. He was taking orders. He was scared.

Steve continued to look at him and Danny knew that expression. He was waiting for answers. Even in that muddled, drug hazed mind he was still looking for answers. Danny sighed. "This was a warning, Steve, but … but its over for now. Look, I promise I'll tell you everything we know as soon as you can sit up in bed and hold a conversation without that being a strenuous task."

"'Kay?"

Danny knew what Steve was asking. "You're okay, I'm okay … everyone is okay. We're all here safe and sound. Don't worry. I promise."

Steve nodded, sighed, breath fogging up the oxygen mask once again.

"Just relax, Buddy. We've got this." Danny told him as the door to the room quietly opened to admit the other members of their team. This was exactly what Steve needed. He needed to know and see that everyone was fine and then he could concentrate on himself.

xXx

He hadn't meant to make connections to anyone. He'd come to Hawaii to do a job, to find the truth. He'd come to Hawaii to keep himself afloat. He'd been there because of family. He hadn't meant to make new friends, friends that he would die for without hesitation. He hadn't meant to allow himself to accept a whole  _new_  family …

But life had a funny way of turning things upside down and surprising you.

He  _had_ made friends. He had found himself in this family unit of Five-O and now there was more reason to stay. There was reason to make some kind of a life.

He'd even go as far as to say he was happy. The people around him mattered and what they all did mattered.

But allowing people into your life also came with a downside. It meant you were allowing yourself the possibility of hurt and loss. Sometimes it made you do crazy things, like stealing from HPD Lock-up to save a friend from dying at the hands of the enemy. It meant that hospital stays didn't just affect the injured party but the whole family unit. They all knew that those god-awful chairs were just as hard to spend time in as a hospital bed. Five O didn't just protect the Island ... they protected each other. When one of the team was hurt, they all hurt.

Just standing there, all that had happened in the last week seemed to roll around in his head. The sun beat down, its warm rays trying to assist with vanquishing recent memories.

A lot had happened, Five O had almost lost two team members in matter of days. But the good guys had won and all members of their unique family were alive. The enemy was behind bars. They were safe. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and allowed the serenity to melt away recent stresses and troubles with the sound of the small waves rippling past him.

The water swirling around his lower body as he stood in waist deep water felt soothing. He traced his fingers across the surface. Being out in the fresh air reminded him that he no longer had to stare at white suffocating walls, no longer did he have to deal with nurses and doctors with disapproving glares. It was all over and done with ... for now.

He could breathe freely … figuratively speaking.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The shout from the shore brought him out of his musings. His serenity was shattered by the familiar exasperated tones of one Detective Danny Williams.

Instead of answering his partner straight away, Steve looked back up at the sky, squinting at the afternoon sun shining down on him. It was bright and warm and welcoming. Danny's voice on the other hand wasn't so much.

"Steve!"

Closing his eyes, Steve dropped his chin to his chest and chuckled quietly. He was glad that Danny wasn't close enough that he could hear the wheeze of his lungs. There was still a tightness in his chest. Lethargy plagued him more than he thought it would. He had learnt his limitations in the short swim he had taken against doctors orders, against Danny's orders.

His partner had been like a nagging mother hen for his entire stay at the hospital. Preventing Steve from getting out of bed when he'd wanted to have a private chat with Victor Hesse himself, bringing him food from outside the hospital and keeping him apprised of what was going on … just enough to satisfy him until he could do his own leg work. So far the Hesse had been tight-lipped no matter how hard they pressed. That wasn't a good sign.

Steve turned in the waist high water, scrunching sand with his toes as he did so. It was time to head in before Danny had a coronary.

He hated how tired he felt. A light swim in the ocean and his chest had been burning. Steve McGarrett didn't do weak … but he definitely wasn't as fit as he'd been trying to portray. He'd hoped that being released from the hospital would set things right, that things could get back to normal straight away.

Apparently the doctors knew what they were talking about.

Looking towards his partner, Steve noticed that Danny wasn't alone. There was movement up at the house. His team, his family were here.

The further he got out of the water the heavier he felt. By the time he reached the shoreline and stepped over to where his visitors were waiting by his beach chair, Steve felt like a heavy wet sack of arms and legs. He pushed himself forward.

"Hey Danny," Steve greeted.

"What are you doing?" Danny skipped the pleasantries, staring at Steve incredulously.

"Hello to you too," Steve answered dryly. He caught the towel his partner threw at him and wiped his face dry. "What are you doing back so soon?" Danny had dropped him home only a few hours before. He looked over at the house and then back to Danny. "What's going on?"

Danny's frown didn't dissipate. "No, no, no … don't think you're going to re-direct and change the subject."

"What?" Steve feigned innocence. He proceeded to wipe the towel over his chest, drying himself off.

"You know what."

Steve sighed. "I believe its called swimming. I was swimming. Nothing out of the ordinary, Danny."

"Let me ask you a question..." Danny began.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Oh here we go."

Danny continued like he hadn't said anything. "Do you - in your neanderthal brain - know the meaning of 'taking it easy', of 'no strenuous activities?" Danny held his hands up, offering up the chance for Steve to answer him.

"You know, some people find swimming a relaxing thing to do."

" _Some people_  aren't Super Navy SEAL Steve McGarrett. The poison seems to have gone to your brain and made you forget that I _know you_."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"That means, my friend, that taking it easy isn't something you know how to do." Danny was working himself up to full on rant.

"Have you looked in a mirror lately? Gotten that vein in your forehead checked?" Steve tapped his own forehead in reference.

"That vein wasn't there before I met you." Danny mumbled. " You're supposed to be taking it easy, not swimming in the fucking ocean, an ocean that has rips and waves and … sharks."

Steve tried not to laugh. "I'm fine."

"No … You're not. You got out of the hospital  _this morning_ , Steven."

"I'm aware of that,  _Daniel_. What's your problem?"

"What's my problem?" Danny asked, his voice a higher pitch, both eyebrows raised as he stared back at Steve. "You're seriously going to ask that? Could it be that Chin just recently nearly got his head blown off by Victor Hesse? Could it be that my partner came this close to dying in the hospital." Danny held his hand up, his finger and thumb barely an inch apart indicating just how close Steve had come to death. "Or the fact that there is someone else out there messing with us? Despite what you may believe, you are not Superman. The doctor sent you home to rest and the first thing I find when I come back here is you out in the ocean. I didn't bring my daughter here to find you drowned or worse..."

"Gracie's here?" Steve asked in surprise.

Danny looked back towards Steve's house and then back at Steve. "She wanted to make sure you were alright. She was worried after I ran out on her on  _Christmas morning_ to save your sorry ass."

Steve hadn't been made aware of the complete details of what had happened when he'd been found. In fact most of his memories were sketchy from well before he got home on Christmas Eve. It hadn't occurred to him – and it should have – that he had messed up Christmas for everyone. "Oh, I'm sorry, man ..."

It was Danny's turn to roll his eyes. "Something tells me that you aren't apologising for your swim against orders."

"I didn't mean to ruin your Christmas with Grace." He did feel terrible. He knew how much Danny valued his time with his daughter.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you're not responsible for every horrible thing that happens on this island." Some of the tension that had been almost vibrating from Danny dissipated a little. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Honestly?"

"I'm fine … honestly." He was tired and his body ached and his lungs weren't happy with the exertion his little swim put him through, but all in all he was doing okay. "Ready to start working on the rest of the puzzle and whatever else comes our way." He was more than ready.

"Yeah well … rest first, then puzzle solving."

"Yes Mom."

"Shut up."

"So you never answered my question. What's everyone doing here?" Steve asked.

"I wasn't the only one you scared, you know. Kono and Chin wanted to come and welcome you home. Kamekona offered to supply food and it suddenly turned into a party. Looks like you wont be welcoming in the new year alone."

"Thanks, Brother, for everything."

"Yeah … well … you're welcome. How about we go back to the house and let everyone else see how 'fine' you are?" Danny suggested, pointing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the house.

Steve nodded and started towards the house and the rest of their unconventional family. His partner walked beside him.

Together, as a team, no matter what warnings they received, they could beat anything.

**The End**


End file.
